Berdych rues ‘missed chances’ at making finals

Tomas Berdych was in a sour mood after missing his chance to make his first Australian Open final as Andy Murray charged on in the tournament on Thursday.

The Czech seventh seed, who went in with a 6-4 winning record over the Scot and had won their last two meetings, could not reproduce his heroics from his previous round upset of Rafael Nadal and bowed out in a fusilade of errors.

While Berdych did not serve one double fault against Nadal, he spluttered with six in his semi-final with Murray. He served more double-faults than aces. Yet again the Czech came up short at the semi-final stage after losing to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka in four tight sets at last year’s Australian Open. “I’m really not happy and not really in a good mood. I’m very disappointed to lose this match,” Berdych said. “It was a big match. But I just need to come back stronger and get myself better for it, and that’s it.” According to Berdych the difference against Murray was his poor second set after taking the marathon opening set in a tiebreaker.